The Iliad by Homer

I was challenged by Don Beck in his Substack to tackle some of the classics I’ve been putting off for years. So, I took a deep breath and plunged into the Iliad. Fortunately, I’d listened to Elizabeth Vandivers’ “Great Courses” lectures last year and had a pretty good idea of its major themes. Still, it took perseverance to read the (sometimes) stiff language and to try and remember who was who.

I found it helpful to make a list of the central characters in the book so that I could disregard the dozens of other names mentioned. It was good to be able to recognize the main Trojans (Paris, Hector, Priam) and the main Greeks (Achilles, Meneleus, Agamemnon, and Petroclus). Unfortunately, many of them had more than one name! Even the gods changed names! (I had to abandon the audiobook and read a hard copy to keep everybody straight.) With that confusion cleared up, the story became much more engaging.   

The Iliad describes the final weeks of a ten-year battle between the Greeks and the Trojans over the beautiful Helen who had been taken from Meneleus, the Spartan king, by Paris, a Trojan prince.

I read W.H.D. Rouse’s (1938) prose translation. He created a very readable version, but I sometimes missed more robust language. Occasionally, I would take a peek at Alexender Pope’s more poetic version to meet that need. Rouse, in his attempt to put the poem in plain, modern English, sometimes surprised me with his rough language. Frequently he exchanged the more poetical “alas” for “damn it.” The schoolboys (for whom this translation was intended) must have chortled at the various swear words sprinkled throughout. 

But “plain, modern English” does not mean dumbed down. This was 1938, after all, when many people still had fairy tales and the King James Bible running around in their heads. That would have made this sentence from Book One seem strangely familiar: The king sent a dire pestilence on the camp and the people perished. Some phrases were downright brilliant such as when Agamemnon’s invincible hands were bedabbled in gore.

 A cursory reading of the story leaves you with the impression that this is a tale of men greedy for war and its spoils. But Homer had much more to say than that. The background is war, but the themes are of mortality and what makes life worth living. The ideas of honor and glory are central, but Vandiver makes it very clear that the Greek understanding of glory ("kleos") isn't just accolades for winning a battle.

In the introduction, Rouse writes, [To the Greeks,] life is lived and death is died according to a certain code of values: to be fully human (at least for a man) is to be a hero, to kill or be killed for honor and glory. Various characters grapple with this social code, especially Achilles and Hector.

I have more that I want to say about that, but it will have to wait for another post. This epic poem is definitely worth the effort. 

P.S. Vandiver's enthusiasm for her subject matter is quite contagious. Happily, her lectures are free as digital downloads from most libraries via Hoopla. 

Blessings,